The 40 Day Challenge Part 1: Run From

Just as sure as pornography stirs up lustful cravings in us, the Holy Spirit is a source of new, holy cravings. Galatians 5 says we who have the Holy Spirit have the “desires of the Spirit” (5:17). God promises that when we “keep in step with the Spirit,” the lusts of the flesh that lead to sexual immorality, impurity, and sensuality will not have their way in us (5:16,25). We can become new men and women from the inside out.

When Paul writes “keep in step with the Spirit,” the word he uses is the same as that of an army marching in line, a platoon following its marching orders. Lest we think keeping in step with the Spirit is a purely mystical experience, Paul says it is very practical. Keeping in step with the Spirit means obeying His clearly revealed orders.

We cannot claim to keep in step with God’s Spirit if we ignore or disobey the writings He inspired: the Scriptures. Through the Bible, the Holy Spirit speaks clear words to the church. As an expert in God’s law, Paul understood this. He knew all the writings of the prophets were “breathed out by God” (2 Tim. 3:16). No less than 32 times in Paul’s letters he uses the phrase “it is written,” pointing to the writings of the prophets who came before him. Paul also knew the Spirit was inspiring him and his fellow apostles (Eph. 3:5). The Scriptures are a gift from the Spirit to us:

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction,” Paul says, “that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4).

To keep in step with the Spirit we must know and obey the book he inspired. We must explore the Bible and learn what God thinks. We must renew our minds with his thoughts.

Take, for instance, the ways pornography warps the mind. Exploring the Bible, we can “reverse engineer” the bad training pornography has given us and replace it with God’s thoughts.

• Porn promises gratification but only decreases our sexual satisfaction. But God is the creator of sexual satisfaction and has designed marriage for its enjoyment (Song. 4:9-16). For single men and women, it means pursuing wholesome, intentional relationships with each other (1 Thess. 4:4). For the present time it also means surrendering to God’s providence and timing (Ps. 37:5), believing that dying a virgin is not a tragedy, but is infinitely superior to pornographic indulgence (1 Cor. 7). After all, the Son of God did. For married men and women, this means renewing our minds towards our spouses, choosing to make them our standard of attractiveness. It means returning again and again to the enjoyment of sex in marriage (Prov. 5:18-19; Song. 7:11-13).
• Porn disconnects us from real relationships, training us to believe that the best sex is solo-sex. But God has defined good sex as an expression of “oneness,” not emotional detachment (Gen. 2:24). For married and single people alike, this means seeing one’s body not as his or her own, but as something to give as a gift to another (1 Cor. 6:19-20; 7:4).
• Porn lowers our view of women, training us to see each other as sexual commodities. But God created women in His image, and as such, women are worthy of great honor (Gen. 1:27; 1 Pet. 3:7). For the man, this means not letting his eyes lead his heart astray, but instead making a covenant with his eyes to never look upon a girl with lust (Job 31:1,7). For the woman, this means refusing to see her own worth through the disingenuous lens of porn standards. Instead, she finds value in being fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) and in the truth that her inner beauty is unfading (1 Peter 3:3-4).
• Porn desensitizes us to and eroticizes cruelty. But God has designed sex as an expression of affection, not aggression (Deut. 22:25; Eph. 5:28-30). God has promised to maintain the cause of the afflicted and destitute (Psalm 82:3; 140:12), and that includes those whose brokenness has led them to a life of prostituting themselves for the camera. God redeems prostitutes like Rahab and brings them into the fold of His people (Josh. 6:25). He forgives their sins and defends their honor (Luke 7:36-50). As the church, we should do the same.
• Porn hooks us deeply, leading to possible addiction and sexual bondage. But God redeems our warped sex drive so that sex is a holy act of love and giving, not selfishness and slavery (1 Cor. 13:4-7; Gal. 5:22-23). Sex becomes our master when we believe the lie that porn tries to sell us: that sex is a “need.” If sex is a need, then we feel justified when we get mad at the world or at God for not giving us the sex or the kind of sex we so rightly deserve. But if sex is not a need, but rather a good desire, then we can set it alongside other good desires and go to the Word to understand its place.

Putting it into practice

Each of these ideas is only the beginning, but the more the mind engages with the Bible around these truths, the more our thoughts are renovated. Over time our minds will be rewired to see things the way God does. As we do this we are “sowing to the Spirit” and in time will reap a harvest of eternal life (Gal. 6:8).